Save the Sumarin Family’s Home

A Campaign developed with the Sumarin Coalition

Status:

September 22, 2020:

Exciting news! Congresswoman Jackie Speier has sent a letter to the Israeli PM about the Sumarin Family

Congresswoman Jackie Speier has officially sent her letter to the Prime Minister of Israel urging him to protect the Sumarin family’s right to their home. She leads twenty-five members of Congress who also signed onto her letter.

Nearly 3,000 letters sent from constituents to their representatives turned this action into a reality. Thank you for your outreach!

What’s more, the Israeli settler organization that took the Sumarin Family's land, Elad, was implicated in a BBC expose on Monday, Sep. 21st.  We'll update you as developments unfold.

The Israeli Supreme Court is planning to take on the Sumarin case in April of next year. We will let you know if Congresswoman Speier’s letter has an effect on this outcome. Although there's no way to tell, we hope this case will ultimately put the Absentee Property Law on trial. The Government of Israel can and must stop the eviction of all Palestinian families.

June 13, 2020:

130 Congress Offices want meetings with Constituents about Sumarin Family

Good Start: so far, some 130 Congressional Offices have written back to request a telecon briefing to learn how to prevent the expropriation of the Sumarin family home in East Jerusalem — Democrats and Republicans, both Senate and House. A guest speaker will join from Jerusalem to speak on behalf of the family and we’re inviting the Constituents who sent a letter to join each briefing because your ask is the reason they take action.

• If you haven’t already, please Email Congress now to ask them to make two calls, to the U.S. State Department and to the Israeli Embassy, to recognize the right of the Sumarin Family to remain in their home.

• Most offices want a list of constituents before they schedule the briefing and if you live in — or if you know anyone who lives in — one of these states or districts we especially need your help. The staffers want to meet but so far, there aren't any letters from their state or district. Please forward this link to friends https://actionnetwork.org/letters/save-sumarin-family-home/ asap so we can set-up the following briefings:
  
  — Senate offices in Idaho, Kansas, Nevada, Rhode Island, Tennessee, and West Virginia;
  
  — House offices in California-27 (Chu-D), California-44 (Barragán-D), California-23 (Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy-R), Indiana-02 (Walorski-R), Kansas-03 (Davids-D), Michigan-13 (Tlaib-D), Pennsylvania-06 (Houlahan-D), Texas-07 (Fletcher-D), Texas-29 (Garcia-D), Washington-06 (Kilmer-D), and UT-3 (Curtis -R).

• Great news: so far, 42,912 emails have been sent to the Jewish National Fund. If you haven’t already, email the KKL-JNF, JNF USA and other affiliates to press them to settle the case and keep the Sumarin Family in their home. One of the performers in the JNF fundraiser on Sunday, Ethan Herschenfeld, the comedian, actor, and opera singer, is speaking out on the issue (see his letter below).
  

• Lastly, you are invited to join a virtual meeting with the Sumarin family this Sunday morning (June 14th) at 12-4 pm Eastern | 9am-1pm Pacific | 11am-3pm Central | 7-11pm Jerusalem time, sponsored by the group, Ir Amin, one of the members of the Sumarin Coalition. To register for the Zoom, click this link: https://forms.gle/UugWjF57wdHY6kmA9. The event will be in Hebrew with English subtitles and will also be broadcast on Ir Amin’s Facebook page.

Thanks for your help with this. It is one home, 3 generations of one family — and a precedent that may impact thousands of Palestinian families.

P.S. A broad coalition is forming to save this home, and frankly, that's what it will take to recognize this Jerusalem family's rights and protect Palestinian homes and property. If your group wants to join the coalition, invite them to sign the letters and reply to this email.

June 12, 2020

Invitation to Further Action On Behalf of the Sumarin Family

From Rabbi Arik Ascherman on behalf of the Sumarin Coalition
We want to open with moving dramatic news! Showing great courage and decency, please read the call of Ethan Herschenfeld, the comedian, actor and opera singer who is scheduled to participate this Sunday in the Jewish National Fund – USA’s (JNF-USA) mega fundraiser billed as “The greatest day in fundraising history.” We have written to most of this Sunday’s performers. While additional performers are considering taking action, Ethan struggled with his commitment to the Israel and the JNF USA, and his humanitarian and Jewish values. In this statement published on his facebook, he addresses what the JNF USA must to prevent the unjust eviction of the Sumarin family from their home in Silwan, East Jerusalem, and calls upon his fellow performers and supporters of JNF USA to join him in this call. Ethan's words are followed by an additional statement by our coalition. Those of you are so moved are invited to send this message, or your own, to some of other artists performing on Sunday.

If you haven’t yet sent letters to the KKL-JNF, JNF USA and other affiliates, please do so. For those of you who have missed the previous emails on this topic, you can also find background information.

As an alternative to the JNF USA fundraiser, please join Ir Amim’s virtual meeting with the family and experts on the case at 7:00 pm Israel time. Please share as widely as possible.

Shabbat Shalom,

Arik

Rabbi Arik Ascherman
Executive Director
Torat Tzedek-Torah of Justice
Recipient of the Rabbi David J Forman Memorial Fund’s Human Rights Prize for 5779

Ethan Herschenfeld writes:
On Sunday June 14, 2020 I will share the virtual stage with a group of world class entertainers to help the JNF-USA raise funds to carry out their important work which includes ecological, environmental, and educational projects aimed at lifting up the people of Israel. While I support JNF-USA in their ecological work of maintaining forests, and addressing water shortages, among other projects, I condemn the efforts of the JNF-USA's sister organization KKL and their subsidiary Himnuta to misuse the Absentee Property Law to evict the Sumarin family from their home in Silwan, East Jerusalem where they have lived for generations. The Absentee Property Law, as the name makes clear, was formulated to deal with land and houses owned by people who had moved far away. I'm a comedian and an actor, and I don't pretend to be a lawyer, but it's obvious on its face that the law has no bearing on a house that was built by a man with his own hands, and has been dwelled in by his family since it was built. The Israeli government itself has acknowledged that the law was misused in cases like the Sumarin's.

Nevertheless, KKL and it's affiliate organizations have pressed on for almost 30 years in their campaign to evict the family. Let the Sumarin family live in peace and security in their home. The JNF-USA abjures responsibility in this case because they are a separate organization from KKL. But the two organizations share a name, a history, and a mission, and worked together during the years when the campaign to remove the family from their house was launched.

I had the honor of playing the role of Rabbi Joachim Prinz recently in a TV series. Rabbi Prinz said that in the face of discrimination and injustice "The most urgent...the most tragic problem is silence." I am asking the JNF-USA to heed the words of Rabbi Prinz, and break their silence on this issue. I am calling on the JNF-USA-- their administration, board, employees, and supporters--to do everything in their power to pressure KKL and Himnuta to put an end to the efforts to evict the Sumarin family and to return legal ownership of the property to the family.

Several steps could be taken by the JNF-USA. They could issue a public statement distancing themselves from the efforts to evict the Sumarin family. They could withhold funds from KKL unless the case is dropped. They could earmark funds that are raised, even this Sunday, to settle the case and keep the family in their home. At this moment of increasing insecurity, worldwide suffering, and abuses of power, we all understand how vital it is to our physical and mental well-being to have a refuge from the world where we can feel safe. It is indefensible to apply the law in a specious manner for the benefit of the powerful and to the detriment of the powerless. It is unjust and inhumane to evict the Sumarin family. I appeal to my fellow performers in the JNF fundraising event to join me in urging the JNF-USA to do the right thing by putting a stop to this injustice and focusing on their mission of lifting up the people of Israel.

You might want to get to his Facebook page, and encourage him by liking this statement.

And here is the call by the Sumarin Family Coalition:

JNF USA - You are responsible for the imminent Sumarin home eviction!

JNF USA is trying to come up with excuses and deny their responsibility for the unethical attempts to evict the Sumarin family from their home in Silwan, East Jerusalem. They claim that they are a separate entity from the JNF-KKL in Israel, but the truth is that they were closely affiliated in the 1980’s when the JNF-KKL induced the Israeli government to seize the home. They were funding the JNF-KKL during the long years the JNF-KKL relentlessly pursued eviction efforts. They worked hand in glove when the JNF-KKL took over additional properties, and then transferred them to radical settler organizations dedicated to “Judaizing” East Jerusalem. Today, JNF USA projects in Israel are carried out in coordination with the JNF-KKL.

JNF USA must take responsibility for their actions by making sure the family stays in its home. They have the power to prevent the eighteen family members spanning three generations from being thrown into the street. They must act now, because what may be the family’s last appeal is to be heard on June 30th.

Firstly, JNF USA is obligated to publicly and privately call on the JNF-KK in Israel to cease eviction efforts and relinquish the “ownership” of the home they were unjustly given through an abuse of the “Absentee Property Law” the Israeli government itself later acknowledged was wrong, but didn’t correct. The family were never absentees.

Secondly, actions speak louder than words. The JNF USA must cut its remaining financial ties with the JNF-KKL in Israel, until this injustice is corrected. If this is not sufficient to persuade the JNF- KKL to act humanely and honestly,  JNF USA should “buy back” the home that never should have been seized, and return it to the family.

JNF USA - take responsibility and right this wrong you made.

June 5, 2020

TIME SENSITIVE: Please Email Congress to save the Sumarin Family's home in E. Jerusalem

A few weeks ago, we asked you to write to the Jewish National Fund (JNF) to urge them to recognize the right of the Sumarin family to stay in their home on their land. Thank you for your action: 37,859 emails were sent by 1650 people to 23 JNF offices worldwide!

Because the JNF has not yet withdrawn its claim to the family's home, please email your elected officials to ask them to intervene on your behalf before the June 30th court date:

On June 30th, 2020, the Israeli court is scheduled to hear the Sumarin family's appeal of their pending eviction by the JNF which aquired the Sumarin family's house in 1991 under Israel's Absentee Property Law — even though the family was living there!  In 1995, this mechanism established for transferring property in East Jerusalem to settlers, was halted; however, the evictions that were underway were not made null and void, so legal proceedings continue to this day, including the case against the Sumarin family.

Eviction would be devastating for the Sumarin family, especially when the pandemic is expanding in Israel. What's more, their case sets a dangerous precedent because, if Israel annexes the West Bank, all of Israel's laws, including Israel's Absentee Property Law, will be used to expropriate Palestinian land despite deeds and titles.

Please email your elected officials this weekend. Based on your action, my team and I will set up teleconference briefings with House, Senate, and state offices starting next week including experts on the line to help answer their questions. We will invite you to join because you, as their constituent, are the reason they will be willing to intervene.

Thank you for your help with this. Questions? Suggestions? Please reply to this email or call us at 1-650-651-7165.

If you would like to learn more, here are three important references:

• Sumarin family, Silwan Texts and photographs by David Shulman,
  Touching Photographs, May 31, 2020

• Following KKL-JNF Suit: Court orders Sumarin family to evacuate their home in Silwan
  Peace Now, Sep 23, 2019
  - a timeline of the 30+ years of legal proceedings since the JNF acquired all the surrounding properties including this home in 1989

• The Three Most Commonly Held Misconceptions About Israel's Annexation Plan by Adv. Michael Sfard, Haaretz, Jun 3, 2020

May 20. 2020

TIME SENSITIVE: Urge the JNF to step away from the Sumarin Family's home

Help to press the Jewish National Fund (the JNF) to step away from the Sumarin family home.

The Sumarin's are a Palestinian Jerusalem family whose home was sold to the highest bidder without their permission — while they were living in it. Today, Jerusalem Day, May 21st, as part of a coalition that formed to support the Sumarin Family, I ask you to send a letter to urge the JNF not to carry out this reprehensible action.

Click this Link
to email the Jewish National Fund

On June 30th, 2020, the Israeli courts are scheduled to hear the final appeal of a case in which the JNF has acquired ownership and, through its subsidiary organization Himanuta, will seek to evict the Palestinian Sumarin family from their home in Silwan, East Jerusalem. This is wrong, it is unfair, it is directly opposed to human values of decency, compassion, fairness and justice, and we ask your help to stop this.

Rebuilding Alliance is part of the Sumarin Coalition and we are part of the group that implemented the email campaign.  The organizations that have come together to support the Sumarin family span the globe and are determined to overcome this injustice.

Your voice makes all the difference now because numbers matter. Letters to the JNF made a big difference in 2011 when the family first asked for help. Since then, Rabbi Arik Ascherman and many others followed-up with quiet diplomacy that sadly, has not succeeded. So we ask your and everyone's help to write to the JNF.  In June, we'll ask your help to write to Congress too.

Click this Link
to email the Jerusalem National Fund
Especially now, in this time of Pandemic, let the JNF know that they must walk away from their claim and must assure the Sumarin family's right to stay safely in the home they own.